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The Rest of the Story: District and School Accreditation

District and School Accreditation
December 12, 2014

DCSD's district rating of Accredited was moved to Accredited with Distinction due to several improvements in performance across the district. Numerous schools at all levels showed improvement in the various performance indicators, thus bolstering district performance framework results for 2014.

Through the consideration of additional sources of achievement and growth, including CMAS social studies and science scores, schools were able to not only increase their performance points within their plan types, but in some cases actually move up an entire plan type to receive a Performance rating. Over 95 percent of DCSD schools received a Performance rating, the highest rating possible. Fourteen schools (Academy Charter, Ben Franklin Academy, Cherry Valley Elementary, Legacy Point Elementary, Northeast Elementary, Platte River Academy, Ponderosa High, Sage Canyon Elementary, Sand Creek Elementary, Sierra Middle, Soaring Hawk Elementary, South Ridge Elementary, Stone Mountain Elementary and Trailblazer Elementary) gained 5-9 percentage points on their overall framework indicators for achievement and growth as compared to last year. Bear Canyon Elementary, Eagle Ridge Elementary, DC Montessori, SkyView Academy and Sedalia Elementary all made gains of 10-15 percentage points while Buffalo Ridge Elementary, Cherokee Trail Elementary, eDCSD, Larkspur Elementary, and Prairie Crossing Elementary gained more than 15 percentage points in just one year’s time.

Post Secondary Workforce Readiness saw significant gains with 100 percent of DCSD high schools achieving Meets or Exceeds ratings, and two schools (Mountain Vista High and Rock Canyon High) receiving 100 percent of the possible number of points in this category. The district received an Exceeds rating in Post Secondary Workforce Readiness, an increase of more than 14 percentage points over the previous year.

Additionally, all of our Alternative Education Campuses (Eagle Academy, Daniel C Oakes High School and HOPE Online Learning Academy) demonstrated improved performance over time in the various Performance Indicators (achievement, growth, postsecondary workforce readiness) through valid assessment measurements surpassing the cut-points determined by the Colorado Department of Education. This resulted in each of these AECs receiving a Performance rating for 2014. CDE also removes data points for districts that serve a larger number of students in AECs, which also contributed to the district to receiving more overall points on the district framework (an increase from 77.4% to 80.6%).